Three care workers have been found guilty of mistreating dementia sufferers at a nursing home "for laughs".

Residents were mocked, bullied and tormented because they would have no memory of the abuse, with one man having his foot stamped on deliberately and another tipped out of his wheelchair.

The vulnerable victims' heads were also pelted with bean bags for entertainment, Preston crown court heard.

Carol Ann Moore, 54, Katie Cairns, 27, and Gemma Pearson, 28, were found guilty under the Mental Capacity Act of ill-treatment or neglect of a person who lacks capacity, after a four-week trial.

Despite a series of complaints from whistleblowers at Hillcroft Slyne-with-Hest nursing home, Lancashire, there was a "cover-up" and the abuse continued.

Moore, the team leader from Lancaster, was found guilty of one charge. Cairns, from Morecambe, was convicted of three charges. Pearson, of Carnforth, was also convicted of tipping another resident out of his wheelchair.

All three will be sentenced at a later date along with Darren Smith, 35, from Lancaster, who has already admitted eight counts and was not on trial.

The offences spanned from May 2010 to September 2011 and related to eight alleged victims, all aged in their 70s or 80s, with the eldest aged 85.

The three defendants and Smith all worked the day shift on the Coniston unit at the home near Lancaster, which housed residents who had been diagnosed with dementia and displayed "challenging behaviour", the court heard.

Kathryn Johnson, prosecuting, told the court the four in "varying ways" mistreated residents. "They mocked them, bullied them and on occasions deliberately assaulted them," she said.

Johnson said bean bags should have been used as part of recreational therapy but they were thrown so hard and fast that residents were unable to catch them. "This caused frustration and anger in the residents, whereas the defendants would laugh," she said.

Smith and Moore would say "they were doing it for their entertainment as they were bored" and if residents objected they "would be subjected to it all the more".

Johnson added: "When the residents reacted, the staff would laugh."

Pearson was seen to tip a resident out of his wheelchair when he failed to stand up, causing him to stumble.

Lisa Bateman, a cleaner at the home, "felt the staff were cruel and was surprised that they did not attempt to hide what they were doing". The last straw for her came when one resident's wife complained about the lack of activities at the home for her husband and others.

"She heard Carol Moore say she would get her own back and she walked up to the husband and slapped him across the face."

Cairns, it was alleged, would pick on one man in particular, pulling loose skin on his neck and laughing, calling it his "mangina". The resident would become "distressed" but Cairns would laugh.

The same victim had bruises around his nipples as if they had been twisted and Cairns was seen to flick and comment on them, the jury heard.

And in one instance, Bateman saw Smith and a second member of staff, named in court as Sean Long, in bed with a male resident and demanded to know what was going on.

Smith jumped out of bed and shut the door. The resident was "shouting and appeared distressed".

"They then left his room and the resident clung to the door frame whilst they tried to pull him into the corridor," Johnson said.

A receptionist at the home, Nichola Pallister, and the cleaner, Bateman, both reported to management that Moore had struck a resident, among other concerns about staff behaviour in September 2011. The defendants were suspended but then reinstated.

In December 2011 and January and March 2012, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) received anonymous emails about the home.

Hillcroft was one of six homes owned by John Ayrton, and another care worker, Adrian Visoka, said there had been a decline in standards when Elaine Fallowfield moved from the firm's nursing home in Lancaster to take over as matron at the Coniston unit, bringing Smith, her "favourite", with her.

Staff who complained to either Fallowfield or the area manager Sue Young were labelled "grass" and given the cold shoulder, the court heard.

And it appears that some who complained were given the impression that social services had been called in, but they were never informed of the alleged abuse.

Moore, Pearson and Cairns were arrested in October last year and told police they were not responsible for any abuse.

They blamed office politics, cliques and in-fighting between staff for the claims of abuse and denied all the charges.